Officials Look to Dial Back Biden’s Taiwan Comments

 

Officials want to restore ambiguity on US intentions\

by Jason Ditz 

Posted onOctober 24, 2021CategoriesNewsTagsBiden, Taiwan

Last week, President Biden set out a new position of Taiwan, reversing years of US ambiguity by saying he absolutely would go to war with China over the island. Since then, officials have been looking to dial that back.

The talk has been that Biden’s statement was a “gaffe,” and are now trying to revise that by insisting US policy has not changed, in spite of Biden’s comments being a very direct change from the status quo.

Biden seemed to want to get out in front of tensions between China and Taiwan, but in committing the US explicitly to such a war, many warn that they are making military confrontation more likely. This was doubly the case when China responded by saying their position isn’t going to change.

Neither side is interested in talks or compromises, and the administration now seems to want to avoid further talk of Biden’s position by restoring some measure of ambiguity by offering contradictory statements on the matter. At best, that would put the US back in a position that Biden felt he needed to revise in the first place.

It isn’t about the internal doubts of Taiwan, but concerns with the reaction in Pacific nations. China’s own response, along with concerns about South Korea and other regional powers that the US is threatening stability.

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/10/24/officials-looks-to-dial-back-bidens-taiwan-comments/